When comparing a dividend-paying stock to non-dividend paying stocks, the dividend-paying stock's price per share should be adjusted to incorporate the dividend

When comparing a dividend-paying stock to non-dividend paying stocks, the dividend-paying stock's price per share should be adjusted to incorporate the dividends paid (for comparative purposes only). As someone else pointed out, even if Microsoft's stock didn't gain a cent you would have made over $6 since 2005 from the dividends paid. Since the comparative price of the stock would get adjusted to reflect this and market cap is a simple product of the price and shares outstanding, it does tangentially impact market cap (again, only for comparative purposes). Though a more direct way of stating this is that the value of the stock should be adjusted to reflect the returns from dividends.